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The impact of a phase-change cooling vest on heat strain and the effect of different cooling pack melting temperatures

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Abstract

Cooling vests (CV) are often used to reduce heat strain. CVs have traditionally used ice as the coolant, although other phase-change materials (PCM) that melt at warmer temperatures have been used in an attempt to enhance cooling by avoiding vasoconstriction, which supposedly occurs when ice CVs are used. This study assessed the effectiveness of four CVs that melted at 0, 10, 20 and 30 °C (CV0, CV10, CV20, and CV30) when worn by 10 male volunteers exercising and then recovering in 40 °C air whilst wearing fire-fighting clothing. When compared with a non-cooling control condition (CON), only the CV0 and CV10 vests provided cooling during exercise (40 and 29 W, respectively), whereas all CVs provided cooling during resting recovery (CV0 69 W, CV10 66 W, CV20 55 W and CV30 29 W) (P < 0.05). In all conditions, skin blood flow increased when exercising and reduced during recovery, but was lower in the CV0 and CV10 conditions compared with control during exercise (observed power 0.709) (P < 0.05), but not during resting recovery (observed power only 0.55). The participants preferred the CV10 to the CV0, which caused temporary erythema to underlying skin, although this resolved overnight after each occurrence. Consequently, a cooling vest melting at 10 °C would seem to be the most appropriate choice for cooling during combined work and rest periods, although possibly an ice-vest (CV0) may also be appropriate if more insulation was worn between the cooling packs and the skin than used in this study.

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Notes

  1. The wearer must either carry their power supply, pump and coolant (heavy) or have these supplied by umbilical (mobility restriction).

  2. Burton originally included body surface area and quoted S in J/m2.

Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

CON:

Control condition

CV0 :

Cooling vest (melting at 0 °C)

CV10 :

Cooling vest (melting at 10 °C)

CV20 :

Cooling vest (melting at 20 °C)

CV30 :

Cooling vest (melting at 30 °C)

LDF:

Laser Doppler flowmetry

HR:

Heart rate

O2 :

Oxygen

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

PCM:

Phase-change material

SD :

Standard deviation

SkBF:

Skin blood flow

\(\overline T_{\text{b}}\) :

Mean body temperature

T sk :

Skin temperature

\(\overline T_{\text{msk}}\) :

Mean skin temperature

WBGT:

Wet bulb, globe temperature

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Acknowledgments

The authors greatly acknowledge the volunteer participants who gave up their time and thermal comfort to undertake this experiment. We are also grateful for the independent medical support provided by Dr Howard Oakley and Mr David Grist, and Dr Shaun Kilminster for his help undertaking the statistical analysis, all of the Institute of Naval Medicine. Thanks are also due to Professor Mike Tipton (University of Portsmouth) and Dr Adrian Allsopp (Institute of Naval Medicine) for their critical review of this manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

This study complies with the laws relating to human research in the United Kingdom and the European Union.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Naval Medicine, Hants, UK

    James R. House, Heather C. Lunt, Rowan Taylor, Gemma Milligan, Jason A. Lyons & Carol M. House

  2. Department of Sport and Exercise Science, University of Portsmouth, Cambridge Road, Portsmouth, PO12 2EG, UK

    James R. House, Heather C. Lunt & Gemma Milligan

Authors
  1. James R. House
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  2. Heather C. Lunt
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  3. Rowan Taylor
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  4. Gemma Milligan
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  5. Jason A. Lyons
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  6. Carol M. House
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to James R. House.

Additional information

Communicated by George Havenith.

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House, J.R., Lunt, H.C., Taylor, R. et al. The impact of a phase-change cooling vest on heat strain and the effect of different cooling pack melting temperatures. Eur J Appl Physiol 113, 1223–1231 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-012-2534-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-012-2534-2

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